Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Senior

I talked to more of the researchers. I've identified an interesting trend: everyone I've spoken to is a field operative, an experimentalist who works in the field, or a former field operative who works with the field team. I understand that the point of having a facility like this is for in situ experimentation, but the range of skills is very limited. Of the dozen or so scientists I spoke to, all but one of them had made at least one trip out into The Sick Land in the past three months, and all of them were using technology they couldn't explain.

The impression they gave me is that every research project is controlled by a senior scientist. The senior scientist designs the experiments, provides the technology, and makes use of the results. There's nothing wrong with that model, but I haven't managed to find a single senior scientist in the building. I've only met the junior staff, and they seem to have much less knowledge than I'd expect. Given how frequently the scientists receive new equipment, I'd guess that the engineers, at least, must be here. But I've not met anyone who has the slightest idea who designs their equipment.

I can't believe that the scientists running these programs aren't in the building. They'd want to be here, and they'd need to be, not least because the researchers I've seen have been so passive and uninformed. Tomorrow, I'm going to find the most senior researcher I can. Someone here must know what's going on.